The Clover Chain Chronicles
by M.E. Magnificent Entity
Summary: There are normal students at Hogwarts, students who are just trying to get through adolescence and pass their classes; students who aren't worried about trying to save the world or helping Voldemort to power. WIP
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world both belong to J.K. Rowling, several publishing companies (Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Scholastic Books), Warner Brothers, Inc., and as I'm not a part of any of them I therefore own none of it. I'm making absolutely no money off of this, please don't sue. I do own the following, however: the Hunter family, Cassiope MacColin, Sojin Young, most all of the first years, and the story. So nyah :P 

Author's Notes: Everyone wants to go to Hogwarts, it's a known fact. We've all seen the "blond American transfer student who just happens to be in the same year as Harry and soon becomes his (or Draco Malfoy's) friend/love interest" too many times to count. Yes, this story is a blatant self-inclusion, but I swear -- it's different from the clichéd Mary Sues! Really. 

Summary: There are normal students at Hogwarts, students who are just trying to get through adolescence and pass their classes; students who aren't worried about trying to save the world or helping Voldemort to power. This is a story about some of those students. (Takes place during the 1995-96 school year.) 

**The Clover Chain Chronicles**  
By M.E.

Chapter 1 

Three weeks before Ruth Ann's eleventh birthday two letters arrived by owl post for her on the same day. It was very exciting for Ruth Ann, who rarely received any mail at all, let alone more than one letter on the the same day. She carefully set them to the side as she sorted through the mail in the basket by the window that served as a mail box for letters her family received by owl. 

After sorting everything into neat piles (one for her father, one for her mother, one for her older brother, and one for junk mail), Ruth Ann picked up her own mail and took it to her room, where she cleared a spot on her rather cluttered floor and laid out the letters side by side. 

Both letters were very similar, same size, same heavy envelopes that the Wizarding community favored, same carefully written letters done by hand with quills. Even the addresses were nearly identical: 

Miss R. A. Hunter  
Second largest bedroom  
10945 Garden Avenue  
Los Angeles  
California 

The only differences were that one was addressed in green ink while the other used purple, and the envelope with the green address had a "U.S.A." tacked on after the "California". 

Her heart beating wildly, Ruth Ann flipped over the letters, intent on opening them. Her eyes focused on the seals, which were different as well. One was a sort of coat of arms with an elaborate "H" on top, while the other held a pair of crossed wands on top of a California poppy. Recognizing both seals, she held her breath as her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. Grabbing both letters, she ran down to the family room. "Mom! Mom! I got my school letters! Look, I got one from each school, just like Jonathan." Coming to a stop next to her mother, slightly breathless, she held out her letters for perusal. 

Mrs Hunter took the letters and snorted as she looked at both seals. "I don't know why they bother sending you a letter for Golden Poppy," here she fluttered the envelope with the purple writing and the poppy seal, "Gardenia knows that your father won't have either of his children attend any school other than Hogwarts." She handed both letters back to her daughter and smiled, "Well, go on then. Open them up." 

Nodding vigorously, Ruth Ann carefully slipped a finger under the flap and broke the seal on the letter from Golden Poppy, the magical secondary school for the state of California. She took out the piece of parchment that was inside and carefully unfolded it, quickly reading the contents of the letter: 

GOLDEN POPPY SCHOOL  
_of Magical Learning and Practice_

Gardenia Cienega, Principal  


Dear Miss Hunter, 

We are delighted to inform you that you have been accepted at Golden Poppy School of Magical Learning and Practice. A list of the necessary equipment and required books has been enclosed with this letter. 

First semester begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. 

Sincerely,  
Hibiki Shijisuro  
_Vice Principal_

"Now the one from Hogwarts. I don't know why you bothered opening the one from Golden Poppy, you know your father wants you to go to Hogwarts," Mrs Hunter said firmly. 

Nervously, Ruth Ann opened up the Hogwarts envelope, and looked at the letter inside. The wording was very similar to that of the one from Golden Poppy, only the letterhead said "HOGWARTS SCHOOL _of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY; Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore", then went on to list some of the Headmaster's achievements. Ruth Ann opened her mouth to say something, only to stop when she heard the front door open downstairs and recognized her father's footsteps as he walked across the dining room floor. 

"I'm home!" he announced to anyone who might not have already noticed. Ruth Ann winced as she heard him come up the stairs. 

Mrs Hunter smiled as her husband's head peaked around the door to the family room. "Hello, dear. Ruth Ann and I were just looking at her school letters." She flashed the letter from Golden Poppy at him. 

"Yes, I saw that Jonathan's Hogwarts letter was on the table, so I suspected as much." Mr Hunter came over and dropped a kiss on his wife's forehead, then turned to hug his daughter. "Almost eleven already! Amazing how time flies. I bet you're excited to be going to Hogwarts, aren't you, short-stuff?" 

Here came the moment that Ruth Ann had been dreading for ages. Squirming away from her father's embrace, she looked down at her feet. "Actually, Dad..." she trailed off, slightly embarrassed by what she was about to say. 

"Yes, Ruth Ann?" 

"I'd like to go to Golden Poppy, if it's all right with you," she said in a rush. Before either parent could say anything else, she continued on, "I mean, I don't want to go to a school in another country -- another continent! I've never been there before and I won't know anyone and at least some of my friends will be going to Golden Poppy, like Jiana and Matthew." 

"Now, honey, you know that's not true," her mother admonished. "You're from England and your brother is going to be a fifth year this term." 

"But, Mom! I don't remember living there, we moved when I was _two_! And what if Jon is in a different house from me? Plus he'll have his own friends he'll be hanging out with, and he won't want me to bug him. And everyone will probably make fun of me because I'm from America," Ruth Ann moped. 

"Now, Ruth Ann, you know that's not true. I myself had a wonderful time when I went to Hogwarts; I made lots of new friends with people from all over, people who I would have never have met if I hadn't gone," Mr Hunter tried to reassure her. 

"Exactly," Ruth Ann's mother joined in. "I did some research when Jonathan received his acceptance letter, and while Golden Poppy is a lovely school and I did go there myself, Hogwarts has a much larger curriculum. Though from what Jonathan tells me, they do seem to have a problem holding on to Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers." 

"You just don't understand! You're supposed to be my parents, but you don't understand anything!" screamed Ruth Ann, stamping her foot. She snatched the Golden Poppy letter from her mother and ran down the stairs, straight to her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her. 

Once inside her sanctuary, Ruth Ann curled up on her bed, pressing her face into her pillow. It just was not fair... Sometimes she hated her dual citizenship with a passion, especially when it brought complications such as this one into her life. 

Mrs Hunter had been twenty when she had gone to Europe in order to study the different magical educational systems there. A Muggle-born witch, she had been amazed by the long-established wizarding community she found there. She ended up staying longer than she had originally planned, fascinated by the customs that most European witches and wizards took for granted. While in England she had begun dating Ruth Ann's father, a shy wizard several years older than herself whom she had met in a wizarding library in London. 

After two years of courting, they married and settled down in England. Several years later, Ruth Ann's older brother Jonathan was born, and, a few years after that, Ruth Ann herself. In 1986 the Hunter family had moved back to the city where Mrs Hunter had grown up because there were more job opportunities for both adults. This was fine with Ruth Ann's father, though he was adamant about both of his children attending Hogwarts for secondary school. Mrs Hunter had felt that the move was worth having to send her children across the Atlantic every school year for seven years once they reached eleven. Born and raised in southern California, she had only tolerated English weather for love of her husband. 

Ruth Ann's sobs died out, and she sniffed slightly, then coughed. She winced slightly at the cough, knowing that her throat would be sore later from her screaming and her crying, both of which had been pointless. As much as Ruth Ann wanted to stay in California and go to Golden Poppy, she knew that it was not going to happen. Her father would have the final say in the matter, and come the end of August she would be on the airplane with her brother, headed to London, England. She sniffed again and frowned. Even though she knew she would be going to Hogwarts, that did not mean she had to like it, she decided as she burrowed under the duvet on her bed. 

Several weeks later found Ruth Ann eleven and packing her trunk in preparation for her going to Hogwarts. 

It's awfully big, was Ruth Ann's first thought when she saw the trunk that her father had made for her for the first time. It was not _quite_ as large as the cedar chest at the foot of the bed in her parents' room, but at one and a half feet deep, three and a half feet long, and nearly two feet high, it still seemed too big to her. 

But once she started packing the trunk with the school supplies that her parents had purchased for her two days earlier during a trip to Tesseract Lane, she was surprised at how much of the space was filled. She had found that she was able to pack the telescope, scales, and phials in her cauldron, using her dragonhid gloves and one of her school robes to help pad them. It saved some space, but the cauldron took up over a square foot of space in the trunk, while the course books (all eight of them) took most of what was left over of the next square foot. 

She carefully folded her remaining robes, along with her cloak and placed them inside of the trunk, gasping as she nearly fell in. Next she picked up her hat, sticking out her tongue at it. She personally thought it to be very old fashioned, none of the wizarding children she knew wore pointed hats and it was generally thought among her peers that such hats had gone out of style around the same time that Merlin had managed to get himself frozen underground for all time. Still, it was part of the required uniform, so she set it on top of the robes. 

Now all that was left were her personal items, such as some of her Muggle clothing that she wanted to take along, pajamas, bathrobe, toiletries, art supplies, and books. Lots and lots of books. Ruth Ann turned to the stack of books that she had gotten from her mother's science fiction and fantasy collection earlier in the day. She was not sure what kind of selection the library at Hogwarts would have, and had decided to that in this situation it would be best to go with the philosophy "better safe than sorry". It would be awful if she found herself with nothing to read for pleasure halfway through the school year -- truly a fate worse than death. 

After adding her reading books, Ruth Ann saw that there was very little space left. Enough for a few of her posters, a framed family photograph, and Harold the Wonder Bear, a gift from a friend who had gone to her Muggle elementary school. Staring at her now-full trunk, Ruth Ann rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. 

There was a soft rapping on her open door, and she turned to look up at where her brother stood in the doorway. "Hullo, Jon." 

"Hi. Can I come in?" Ruth Ann nodded her head, and he stepped into her room, deftly navigating the chaotic mess on the floor in order to sit down on her bed. "You know, Ruth Ann, it's not going to be that bad." 

"Excuse me?" 

"Hogwarts. I know it's going to be scary -- different customs, new school, new people -- but it's really not that bad. In fact, you're getting off easy. When I started I didn't know _anyone_. At least you'll have me," he explained matter-of-factly. 

"But what if I'm not in the same house as you? I'll be in a dorm full of people I don't know, and they'll make fun of me because I don't know anything about the European wizarding world..." She pressed her hands against her eyes, willing herself to not cry. "And you know how I am around people I don't know... I'll either be so shy that people will think I'm a mute, or I'll be too hyper and scare them all off." 

"Well, first off, even if you did end up in the same house as me, you would still be in a dorm with people you didn't know -- they don't have mixed dorms at Hogwarts, Ruth. You'd be the dorm for the first year girls, and I'd be in the fifth year boys' dorm. And secondly, you probably wouldn't be in Hufflepuff with me. Not to be mean or anything, but while you are quite loyal to your friends, but you aren't patient and hardworking in the least. Most likely you'll end up in some other house," Jonathan explained patiently, kindly ignoring the fact that Ruth Ann was about to cry from frustration. "And they won't make fun of you because you 'don't know anything'. Remember, some of the students are Muggle-borns like Mom, so they won't have known anything about the wizarding community before getting their letters. We're lucky, we know a lot already because Dad's from a long line of wizards, so we're used to the wizarding world even though we're first generation wizards on Mom's side. 

"And as for your being shy, don't worry about it. There's this one guy in my year and even though he's not very good in class and tends to bumble things up, a lot of people like him. And nearly everyone thinks the Weasley twins are great -- they're in Gryffindor -- and they're cracking jokes and playing tricks on people all the time." He smiled at her and reached over to ruffle her light brown hair. "Don't sweat it, kiddo. You'll be great." 

Lowering her hands, Ruth Ann smiled up at him and crawled over to the bed, where she leaned back against his legs. "You really think so, Jonathan?" 

"Sure I do. Just show them some of those comics you're always drawing -- if that doesn't make them like you, I don't know what will." 

"Thanks, Jon. You know I love you, right?" 

"Of course I do." 

"Just making sure."

* * *

Tesseract Lane: My homage to Madeleine L'Engle's wonderful _A Wrinkle In Time_ books :P I apologize now for Ruth Ann being a whiny brat in the first couple of chapters. Remember, folks, she's eleven and she's being forced to go to a country she's (practically) never been to before where she will live with people she's never met before. That would be hard on anyone. :( 

Next chapter: the dangers of travel; an ordinary wand; concerning Egyptian gods. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world both belong to J.K. Rowling, several publishing companies (Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Scholastic Books), Warner Brothers, Inc., and as I'm not a part of any of them I therefore own none of it. I'm making absolutely no money off of this, please don't sue. Ahem, I do own the following, however: Geoley, the Hunter family, Cassiope MacColin, Sojin Young, several of the first years, and the story itself. So nyah : P 

I know I said this in Chapter 1, but I'm going to say it again just in case people weren't paying attention. Yes, this story is self-insertion. No, it contains no Mary-Sues. I swear. On my muse's grave. Never mind that she's not dead yet.... 

**Chapter 2**

Her talk with Jonathan ended up helping Ruth Ann adjust to the idea of attending Hogwarts a great deal. She stopped worrying about it, and concentrated on spending as much time as possible with her friends. While her friends from the wizarding world knew where she was going, she was only about to tell her Muggle friends that she was going to the same British boarding school that her brother attended. Ruth Ann pushed the impending trip so far out of her mind that it nearly caught her by surprise when she found herself standing in LAX on August thirtieth. 

"Do you have some gum for popping your ears? What about something to read? Are you sure you haven't forgotten your tickets?" Mrs. Hunter worried as she she rushed both of her children through the airport. While Mrs. Hunter herself disliked airplanes, she had decided a long time ago that traveling the Muggle way was a lot cheaper than the wizarding method of international transport, especially if one knew how to take advantage of special airline offers, which she did. 

After dropping off their school trunks, they were herded over to metal detectors in front of their gate of departure. While the children waited for their carry-on luggage to pass through the scanners, Mrs. Hunter turned to admonish her son one last time. "Now, Jonathan, you _do_ have enough pounds to get to the Leaky Cauldron, right? Because I don't want to get a phone call saying I need come over there and rescue you because you don't have any money to get to there." 

"Yes, Mother," Jonathan sighed, and stepped forward, about to walk through the metal detectors. He was snagged by his mother at the last moment, however. 

"All right then, I'm just making sure. Now, give me a hug, you won't be seeing me until next summer, you know." Rolling his eyes, Jonathan gave her one of his trademark hugs, stiffly putting his arms around her and lightly patting her on the back. When it was over he quickly stepped back, then escaped through the metal detector. 

Mrs. Hunter turned to her youngest child. "Come on, your turn, Ruth Ann. Hugs and kisses, then on through to the gate." She smiled encouragingly at her daughter, who was holding back, eyeing the planes that were landing and taking off on the airfield outside the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows nervously. 

"Do I have to go? I've never been on a plane before, Mom --Êwhat if something goes wrong and it falls? I'll be squashed like a bug, or I might implode from the pressure if it's high enough up! Or it might fall in the ocean, and I'm a _terrible_ swimmer," Ruth Ann said, her eyes wide and scared. 

"Nonsense dear, airplanes are perfectly safe. More people are hurt each year in car accidents than from airplane accidents," Mrs. Hunter reassured Ruth Ann as she bent down to give her daughter a big hug and a kiss on each cheek. 

Ruth Ann hugged her mother back, then shakily walked through the gate to join her brother, taking her backpack from him. They both waved to their mother, who enthusiastically waved back before turning to leave. Once their mother's back was turned to them, Jonathan leaned down to murmur in his sister's ear. "What she never tells you when she says that thing about the car and plane accidents is that way more people use cars world wide than they use airplanes. Most likely the percentages are pretty much the same." 

Ruth Ann turned to look at her brother and clutched her backpack more tightly to her chest. He laughed and ruffled her hair. "But don't worry, I've got my wand on me and I'll save you if something does happen. We're allowed to use magic away from school if it's a life-or-death situation. And I'm very good at levitation charms, I learned them in first year." 

Why does that not reassure me in the least? Ruth Ann wondered as she walked over to a row of seats near their gate and sat down in one. She opened her backpack and took out the book she was currently reading. It was her father's copy of _Hogwarts, A History_. After she admitted to not wanting to attend Hogwarts, he had dug it out from the attic and given it to her, telling her that she couldn't say she wouldn't go when she knew nothing about the school. "And if you still don't like it at the end of the term, we'll see about having you transferred to Golden Poppy next year, all right?" he had said. Hearing this, she had at last acquiesced to going, figuring that it would be like spending a year as an exchange student. Next year she would go to Golden Poppy, and she would be able to tell her friends all about the weird things that they did at Hogwarts and they would all laugh at that. 

Jonathan sat down next to her and settled back, taking out his own book. Ruth Ann noted that it was a sf book, and she hid a smile behind her book. It's weird, she thought lightly to herself, that here we are, witches and wizards, and all of my family reads Muggle science fiction stories. It was a strange twist of irony, in her opinion. Maybe Jon's right, she decided, maybe this won't be too bad as long as we stick together. 

The airplane ride took around eight hours, Ruth Ann decided later when she had a chance to think about. When they arrived in London, her watch read two thirty, and their six o'clock flight had been relatively on time, so it had actually been quite easy to do the math while she was try to grab her trunk from the luggage carousel. Jonathan managed to commandeer luggage trolleys for both of them, and they pushed their trunks out to the front of the airport. While they waited for a free cab, Ruth Ann watched with interest as her brother took off his watch and began fiddling with it. 

"What're you doing?" she asked him, curious. 

"There's a seven hour time difference between here and L.A. While it's two in the afternoon back at home, it's nine P.M. here. Don't tell me you forgot!" Having adjusted his watch, Jonathan put it back on his wrist. 

"Actually... I hadn't even thought about it. Does this mean that I'm going to be jet lagged? Hey, Jon, can you get jet lagged if you travel by Floo? Do they even call it jet lagged, or is it 'Floo lagged'?" Ruth Ann continued to spout off several more questions on the topic as they loaded their trunks into a taxi and Jonathan told the driver their destination of the Leaky Cauldron. 

Finally, he turned to her and began answering those questions that he remembered. "Yes, we will be jet lagged. Don't worry about it, though. My morning professors were very understanding once I explained my situation to them. After a couple of weeks I'm pretty much adjusted to the time difference. It shouldn't be any different for you." 

They soon arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, and Jonathan paid the cab driver, who was kind enough to help them get their trunks out of the car. Ruth Ann was glad that it wasn't very far from the curb to the little pub. Jonathan went first, pushing the door open and shoving his trunk in ahead of her, then turning to help Ruth Ann with her own burden. 

Once inside, he instructed her to wait by the door with both their trunks. "I have to go talk to Tom -- he's the owner of the Leaky Cauldron -- and see about arranging for rooms for us. We might as well spend the rest of the day here, since it's late enough that most of the shops on Diagon Alley will be closed," he explained to her before going off to talk to the wizened old man tending the bar. 

Ruth Ann was surprised when the bartender -- Tom, she presumed -- left his place behind the counter to walk with Jonathan over to where she stood. "So, you're Jonathan's little sister, eh? I've heard about you the few times he's stayed here. Quite the little rapscallion, aren't you?" 

Flushing, Ruth Ann looked down at her hands and mumbled something about Jonathan being a bit biased in his opinion of her. Tom just laughed, then helped them up carry their trunks up the stairs. 

"We're a bit full right now, so you'll have to stay in the same room, if that's all right with you. There are two beds, however, so it shouldn't too scandalous." He smiled warmly at them as he opened the door to room five and ushered them in. "You must be tired, after all that traveling, why don't you just settle down and take a nap? I'll come in and leave your supper before I go to bed. Don't hesitate to ask for anything!" And then he was gone. 

The siblings dragged their trunks over to their chosen beds, then quickly took off their packs and crawled under the covers. They didn't even stir when Tom came in with their suppers at ten thirty. 

The next day they woke up a bit after one o'clock, local time. After going downstairs and consuming a quick late brunch, they went out the back door and into a small courtyard. 

Drawing out his wand, Jonathan lightly tapped one of the bricks on the back wall of the courtyard. Ruth Ann watched in wonder as a hole appeared, then grew larger and larger until it was big enough for both her and her brother to pass through. Once she was on the other side, she looked back and was surprised to see that the archway had not remained. Turning to ask her brother about this, the words died in her throat as she got her first good look at Diagon Alley. 

When she had first been told of Diagon Alley by her brother in his letters home four years ago, Ruth Ann had envisioned a carbon copy of Tesseract Lane, the magical shopping area for most of southern California. Diagon Alley, however, couldn't have been more different than Tesseract Lane -- well, at least in terms of architecture. 

Tall, spindly buildings stood next to squat narrow ones, while in other places there were sprawling shop fronts. All of this was overshadowed by the marble monstrosity that was the London branch of Gringotts Bank with its shiny bronze doors. The overall impression was one of everything being squished into one small space, while still managing to stretch out as far as the eye could see. Ruth Ann considered Tesseract Lane, with its ranch house-style shops, stalls set up in the middle of the street, and wide wooden porches which shaded the sunken shops that were at basement level. She honestly couldn't decide which place she liked better. 

Jonathan did not allow her any more time to consider the two magical locations, however, as he was dragging her off to a squished and shabby-looking shop. A sign over the door proclaimed the building to be Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. Dragging her feet, Ruth Ann stared up at the sign, her eyes as wide as dinner plates and her mouth hanging open in surprise. She tugged on Jonathan's shirt sleeve right before he could open the door. He turned to glare at her. "What?" 

"It's a joke, right?" she asked, pointing up at the sign. "It can't have been established in 382 B.C., could it? I mean, how would they know? The B.C. and A.D. tags weren't even invented until the sixth century, and the monk who came up with them didn't even get the year zero right, it's actually off by four or six years--" She was cut off as Jonathan rolled his eyes and pushed through the door, dragging her with him into the tiny room. 

In the absolute silence that followed the ringing of a bell when they entered the shop, Ruth Ann stared at the walls, which were covered with bookshelves containing narrow boxes that went up to the ceiling. There were thousands upon thousands of the boxes, and everywhere she looked, Ruth Ann saw more of them. Suddenly scared, she drew closer to her brother and looked up at him. She wasn't sure whether or not she should be relieved that he looked nervous as well. 

"Good afternoon," said a quiet voice from somewhere off to the left. Ruth Ann let out a squeak and clutched more tightly at Jonathan's arm. Next to them stood an old man with wide, luminous eyes. 

"Um, ah... hello," said Jonathan a bit weakly. "My sister needs to get her wand. She's starting at Hogwarts this year..." 

"Ah, yes, of course. Mr. Hunter, isn't it? Eleven and three quarter inches, oak, if I am correct?" Mr. Ollivander asked, his eyes lighting up strangely in the gloomy shop. 

Jonathan nodded nervously, and Ruth Ann noticed that he was shaking slightly. The shop owner seemed to be more than a bit unnerving, she decided. "Yes, sir. It's very good, but my sister..." 

The old man's eyes immediately shifted to concentrate on Ruth Ann, and she squirmed slightly under his gaze. He then proceeded to ask her a whole barrage of questions, at one point taking out a tape measure and measuring her in all different directions. Finally he turned away and began taking boxes off the shelves, seemingly at random. Ruth Ann soon discovered that each box contained a wand, and each time Mr. Ollivander took down a new one, he handed her the wand from inside and insisted that she swish it in the air. 

After swishing half a dozen or so wands, Mr. Ollivander handed her a rather plain looking wand. Sniffing experimentally, Ruth Ann studied the wood of the wand. "Excuse me, sir... but is this pine? Because it sure smells like pine." 

The old man's lips quirked in a strange manner, and if Ruth Ann hadn't known better, she would have sworn that he had smiled at her. "Yes, it is. Are you familiar with pine, then?" 

"Oh, yes. My family goes camping in the forest a lot, and some of my Muggle cousins take this self-defense class where they have to break boards of pine wood with their feet. They have to bake the boards in the oven first to dry them out, so sometimes when we go to visit them their entire house smells like pine wood," Ruth Ann explained happily as she gave the wand a little swish. She was very surprised when the tip emitted a spurt of orange and blue sparks. "Ooo... sparkly... And look, they're complimentary colors!" 

Taking the wand back and returning it to its box, Mr. Ollivander gave her an odd look. "Ten inches, pine with a hair from the tail of a unicorn. A rather generic, soft wand. Interesting... That will be seven Galleons and three Sickles." 

Jonathan dug the coins out of his pocket and carefully counted out eight Galleons. Mr. Ollivander went behind a desk in the front of the store, stashed the Galleons away somewhere under the counter, then handed Jonathan his change of fourteen Sickles, and the siblings gratefully left the gloomy wand shop for the sunny street outside. 

Gradually, as they walked down the street, Ruth Ann loosened her grip on his sleeve, until at last she let go entirely. "Was he... was he strange like that when you got your wand, Jon?" 

Her brother slowed down, drawing her close to the wall of an ice cream parlor and out of the busy traffic of the street. "Well, yes, I guess he was. It was weird, he was able to spout off all the stats about Dad's wand too, when we came in. I don't think he ever forgets who buys a wand from him. Like having a photographic memory that can only ever remember one thing." 

Ruth Ann Ann laughed at this, and didn't stop until they were inside of the Magical Menagerie. Once she had managed to get herself back under control, Ruth Ann Ann looked around at the shop, taking in the cats, rats, bats, birds, toads, and other animals that could be seen from where they stood. "Jonathan... what are we doing here?" 

"Mom said I could get an animal, late birthday present all that. I think I'm going to get an owl, since then I won't have to worry about keeping it in my room." He grinned at her confused look, and explained. "See, Justin has a cat, and so does Ernie, so it's already close to chaos in my dorm room. If I had a cat that would just add to the insanity, and if I got a toad I would have to worry about losing it. Owls stay in the Owlrey, so I wouldn't have to worry about either Justin or Ernie's cats trying to eat it." 

They walked over to the wall that held cages of owls and Jonathan began looking at them with interest. Standing to the side, Ruth Ann clutched the box with her wand in it to her chest and scowled. "Mom said I couldn't have an animal. She said that I was too young and that I wouldn't take care of it." She looked longingly at some of the other animals and sighed. "I want a snake or a bat. That would be really cool." 

Jonathan, who had been looking at a tawny owl, laughed. "I believe your letter said 'Students may also bring an owl or a cat or a toad.' Though there's a guy who's in the same year as me who had a rat. I don't think I saw it around last year, though... maybe it died." 

Looking at the owls, his sister nodded absentmindedly. Suddenly, she stopped in front of one cage. "Oh, Jonathan... look at this one! He's so small, and such a pretty red color." She cooed at the screech owl in the cage in front of her. It was noticeably smaller than the other owls, its dull red feathers standing out among all the grey and brown owls that were in the cages around it. 

A short time later, the two siblings were back out on the street, Jonathan holding the cage with the red screech owl in it. Ruth Ann was bending over, stroking the owl carefully through the bars of the cage. "What are you going to call him?" she asked her brother. 

Her brother frowned and thought for a moment. "How about Thoth? Wasn't he that Egyptian bird god?" 

Ruth Ann stuck out her tongue at him. "Yes, but he had the head of an ibis. Horus had the head of a hawk, and that's closer to an owl, so why not call him Horus?" 

"I like Thoth." 

"Fine then, call him--" She broke off as her eyes caught hold of something. "Oh, look! A bookstore! Please, can we go inside and look, Jon? Please?" 

A thoughtful look on his face, Jonathan nodded, having decided that he might as well give in to the inevitable. They would be taking a taxi to King's Cross in the morning in order to catch the Hogwarts Express. As Ruth Ann was only a first year, she would not be able to go to Hogsmeade and would end up spending the entire year book store-deprived, so it would probably be in his best interests to allow her to waste the next few hours in Flourish and Blotts. 

---

I want a pet snake... :( 

Next chapter: the dangers of Platform Nine and Three Quarters; discourse on a fine art; problems with prefects. 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world both belong to J.K. Rowling, several publishing companies (Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Scholastic Books), Warner Brothers, Inc., and as I'm not a part of any of them I therefore own none of it. I'm making absolutely no money off of this, please don't sue. Ahem, I do own the following, however: Geoley, the Hunter family, Cassiope MacColin, Sojin Young, several of the first years, and the story itself. So nyah : P 

Once again, I know I said this in both of the previous chapters, but I'm going to say it once more just in case people weren't paying attention the first two times. _Yes_, this story is self-insertion. _No_, it contains no Mary-Sues. I swear. My muse can't tolerate the things, she gets a severe allergic reaction every time gets anywhere near them. 

**Chapter 3**

Both children had a hard time getting out of bed the next morning. Jonathan had asked for an ten o'clock wake up call the previous night, and because of this the rather loudmouthed mirror on the wall absolutely refused to let them try to go back to sleep, despite the fact that to them it was three o'clock, not ten. 

After finally leaving the comfortable warmth of their respective beds, each sibling was able to get dressed in their nondescript Muggle T-shirts and jeans -- though, admittedly, it was mainly through trial and error. Jonathan even managed to go so far as to halfheartedly drag a comb through his bedraggled hair, though the effort was mainly in vain. 

They stumbled down the stairs dragging their trunks behind them, once down Tom attempted to get some breakfast into them. He was unsuccessful on this venture, and ended up having to rush the half asleep children out the door and into the taxi that he had called for them. 

When they arrived at the station, they managed to awaken enough to actually create some semblance of intelligent conversation. The taxi parked in front of the station and Jonathan helped Ruth Ann get her trunk out of the back of the car. He then left her standing on the curb in front of King's Cross with both of their trunks and the cage holding Thoth while he scrounged up a couple of trolleys for them to put their stuff on. He was not gone long and soon returned, awkwardly pulling along two trolleys. They were quickly loaded and the Hunter children entered the building, on their way to Platform nine and three quarters. 

As she walked, Ruth Ann wondered aloud to her brother about getting to a wizarding school by train, a decidedly Muggle mode of transportation. "If you'd gone to Golden Poppy it would have been by train as well," Jonathan informed her as he pushed his trunk along. "Mom told me that she used to take the train to Golden Poppy from Union Station, so I guess wizards have just decided that it's easier to just adapt some Muggle technology to their own needs. And how else are we going to get there? We can't Apparate, we're both too young. It would be pointless to Floo, where would they find a big enough fireplace for all of the students? And Portkeys would be too darn complicated. So instead they use the train." 

When he finished, he turned to look at her expectantly. She glanced around, and was surprised to see that they had arrived at platforms nine and ten. "You go first, Ruth Ann. I'll be right after you," Jonathan said, smiling slightly. "Just walk through the barrier. If you're scared, try running. Don't worry, you won't hit the wall." Nervous, Ruth Ann nodded slightly, then wiped her sweaty palms on the front of her jeans. Taking a deep breath, she took hold of her trolley, squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and ran at the barrier. 

Despite her brother's words, Ruth Ann waited fearfully for the end of her trolley to hit the barrier. When several minutes had passed with nothing happening, she risked opening her eyes. She immediately slowed down and stared around herself. 

All around her there were other girls and boys of varying ages, some alone, some accompanied by their parents. Ruth Ann was struck dumb, still trying to understand how she had managed to pass through a seemingly-solid wall. Suddenly someone careened into her back causing she stumbled forward. All of her weight fell on her trolley, giving it a good starting push. The last thing Ruth Ann saw before she tumbled to the floor was her trolley and trunk rolling off for places unknown. 

"Oops. Sorry, Ruth Ann, I forgot to tell you that it's generally not a good idea to stop anywhere that's in a straight line with the archway." Ruth Ann sat up and turned her head to glare at the person whose trunk had run into her. 

"You are so dead when I tell Mom about this, Jonathan." 

"If I were you, I'd stop worrying about tattling and start worrying about catching my trunk before it goes off the platform and onto the tracks," advised her brother, raising an eyebrow. 

Her eyes growing wide, Ruth Ann gasped and jumped to her feet, snapping her head back to where she had last seen the trolley. Breaking into a run, Ruth Ann went after the runaway trunk and trolley. They were not going especially fast, but the trolley had had a head start and Ruth Ann was afraid that she might not be able to catch up in time. To make matters worse, she could not see her things anywhere. 

A squawk of surprise from her left alerted her, and she craned her head in that direction. To Ruth Ann's dismay it seemed that her trunk had nearly succeeded in running down another girl. Trotting over, Ruth Ann leaned over to help the girl up from where she had landed on the floor when Ruth Ann's trunk had hit her. "Sorry! My brother ran into me and I accidentally pushed the trolley forward and it escaped. I am so very, very sorry!" she said over and over again as the girl brushed the dirt off of her black robes. 

"It's all right, it didn't hurt much -- it really wasn't going all that fast. I was mostly surprised, that's all," said the girl, her dark brown eyes sparkling with mischief. She held out her hand. "I'm Sojin Young -- I'm starting my first year, what about you?" 

Ruth Ann took the other girl's hand and shook it. "Ruth Ann Hunter, and I'm a first year too," she replied shyly. She released Sojin's hand and grabbed a hold of the handle on her trolley. 

There was a shout from from behind her, and Ruth Ann turned her head to see Jonathan waving at her, gesturing for her to hurry up. She smiled and waved back, then held up one finger to indicate that she would only be a minute longer. To Sojin she said, "That's my brother, the big lunk. I've got to go -- I, um... I guess I'll see you at school. Bye!" 

Quickly turning her trunk around, she ran over to join Jonathan. "Come on, we have to get on the train now if we want to find a free compartment. They always fill up really fast, so it's better if you get on the train as soon as possible -- that's why I insisted that we get here so early." 

Ruth Ann nodded, and followed her brother onto the train, grunting with the effort it took to pull her trunk up the stairs. She was grateful that her brother was willing to sit with her on the train, she knew that many older children detested just being _seen_ with their younger siblings. Jonathan was glancing through the glass panels of the doors as they walked passed them down the corridor. True to Jonathan's word, it was not long before they found an empty one. He slid the door open and dragged in his trunk, Ruth Ann coming in right after him. 

They sat down and Ruth Ann immediately pulled a book out from her backpack and opened it up on her lap, intent on reading it. She barely noticed when a couple of girls came in with their own trunks. Jonathan had to resort to poking her hard in the side to get her attention. "What?" Ruth Ann snapped irritably, looking up from her book. 

"These are a couple of my friends. You don't mind if they sit with us, do you?" he asked her politely. 

"Huh? Oh, no." Ruth Ann shut her book after carefully making sure to mark her place and turned to smile at the new arrivals. Both were about the same age and probably in the same year as Jonathan, which did not surprise her very much. 

One girl with red pigtails was studying Ruth Ann with curiosity. "Who's the firstie, Jonathan?" 

"She's my sister, Sally-Anne. Um," Jonathan raked his hand through his dark brown hair a bit nervously. "This is Ruth Ann, my younger sister. Ruth Ann, that's Sally-Anne Perks," he indicated to the girl with the pigtails, "and that's Susan Bones." The second girl had a long black braid that she'd slung over her shoulder. 

Susan smiled at Ruth Ann. "Pleased to meet you, Ruth Ann. I'll bet you can't wait to get your first look at Hogwarts, hm?" 

"I'm attending under protest. You will not be able to say or do anything that will convince me that the experience will be in any way pleasant," Ruth Ann grumbled. "_I_ wanted to go to Golden Poppy, but my parents wouldn't let me." 

Tucking her trunk under the seat, Sally-Anne blinked, confused. "What's Golden Poppy?" 

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Golden Poppy School of Magical Learning and Practice. It's the wizard school for California. Ruth Ann here," he jerked his finger in his sister's direction, "would rather go there instead of Hogwarts." 

"Well, considering some of the rumors flying around, I'm not surprised," Sally-Anne said softly as she sat down across from Ruth Ann. 

"Rumors?" 

"Oh yes, haven't you read what they're saying about Professor Dumbledore in the _Daily Prophet_?" Susan asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "My aunt says it's bull. She says that the _Daily Prophet_ is no better than _The Quibbler_ these days." 

"We don't get the _Daily Prophet_. Dad says it isn't worth the extra Sickles he'd have to pay because we're on the other side of the globe," Jonathan explained. 

As the fifth years turned to discussing what had happened over their summer break, Ruth Ann returned to her book. Soon, the train started with a jerk. She continued reading, though every now and then she would look out the window the passing scenery. 

At one point the door to their compartment was pushed open and a girl with bushy brown hair stuck her head in. "Hi, Sally-Anne, Susan. Just checking in," she said cheerfully, pointing to the pin on her black school robes. 

Susan clapped her hands and smiled at the girl. "Oh, Hermione, I knew you'd make prefect. Do you know who it is for Hufflepuff yet?" 

"Yes. Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott," the girl with the bushy hair -- Hermione, Ruth Ann assumed -- answered. 

Rolling his eyes, Jonathan snorted, "No need to guess who the other prefect is for Gryffindor. It's Potter, isn't it?" 

Hermione frowned and shook her head, answering him slowly, "No, it's Ron, actually. Speaking of them both, I should see about joining them. See you at school!" She gave a small wave, then slid the door shut and wandered down towards the end of the corridor. 

Sally-Anne turned her gaze to Ruth Ann. "What are you reading, Ruth Ann? You look fascinated by it." 

Smiling shyly, Ruth Ann held up her book to show the cover. "_Hogwarts, A History_. It's very interesting, there's all this stuff about the founders, and there are lots of little quirky facts about the school, like that you can't Apparate to or from the grounds. And--" 

Laughing, Sally-Anne held up her hands. "Okay, okay. Gee, I didn't know anyone actually read that book for fun. Though a lot of people checked it out from the library in our second year, because of the Chamber of Secrets. I always thought that was the only time anyone ever read it." 

Jonathan nodded his head in agreement. "Well, except for maybe some of the Ravenclaws, and Hermione." 

The other fifth years laughed at his comment. Ruth Ann just rolled her eyes then turned to look out the window at the countryside. Apparently reading _Hogwarts, A History_ was some sort of old joke among the three of them and she felt it would be better to just ignore them -- anything else she chose to say on the subject would only encourage them. 

After a while it began to rain hard enough that Ruth Ann had to give up on being able to see anything when she looked out the window. Sighing, she tried to return to her book, but she was growing tired of the stilted language and found it hard to concentrate on it. 

Bending over, Ruth Ann retrieved her pack and stowed the book away. This done, she leaned back, closed her eyes, and fell asleep. 

Several hours later she was awakened by the hushed voices of the people she was sharing the compartment with. Still half asleep, she muzzily wondered what they were talking about, and why she had chosen to awaken now. 

"...sure she's really asleep? I mean, she's sitting straight up, for goodness sake! I think she just has her eyes closed," said Susan, obviously skeptical. 

"She happens to be one of the few people in this world who has mastered the fine art of sleeping sitting up -- and I know she's really asleep because she learned how to do it from me," Jonathan said. 

Ah, they were talking about her, that explained it. For some strange reason Ruth Ann's hearing was tuned in such a way that she would immediately home in on conversations about her, something she had found to be a very useful trick when the adults wanted to talk about her behind her back... 

Yawning, Ruth Ann rubbed her eyes and pride her lids open far enough to look at the fifth years. "Well, I was asleep until some people started talking about me," she said grumpily. 

"It's just as well that you woke up," Jonathan replied, poking her gently in the side, "we're going to arrive at the station soon and you still need to change into your robes." Ruth Ann noticed for the first time that everyone else had changed into their school robes. Shrugging, she took a set of robes out of her trunk and pulled them on over her head. 

She picked at the black cloth and stuck her tongue out at it. "Bleah. I hate robes, they get caught on everything -- it's like wearing a skirt all the time." Ruth Ann ignored Jonathan's muffled snicker as she stuffed her backpack into her open trunk, then slammed the lid shut and latched it. She sat down again and tried to wait patiently, but instead ended up picking at a loose thread in her robe until Jonathan made her stop. This time she stuck out her tongue at him. 

It was not very long before the train began to slow down and she started hearing students in other compartments rummage about in an increasingly noisy manner, trying to get all their stuff together. At long last train stopped, and she was pushed out into the corridor by her brother. About to snap at him, she was soon overwhelmed by a wave of students of all sizes and ages. She considered herself lucky that she managed to make it out of the train in one piece and breathing. 

Standing out in the cold, wet mist it suddenly hit her that she did not know where Jonathan was and that she was alone in a strange place, surrounded by with equally strange people. Pulling her cloak tighter around herself, she looked all around, a hint of desperation in her movements. Most of the students were walking over to where row upon row of carriages stood. It seemed the other students intended to have the carriages carry them to the school, though Ruth Ann saw no horses to pull them. She also did not see Jonathan among them. 

A woman holding a lantern began calling for first years to line up next to her, and as soon as Ruth Ann saw her she gratefully headed in that direction. As she rushed along, she slipped on the wet platform and stumbled into the person in front of her. Mumbling an apology, she pushed herself up and was about to continue on towards the woman when a hand caught the back of her cloak, stopping her. 

Thinking it to be her brother she spun around, ready to bawl him out for abandoning her to the mercy of the crowded corridor. To her surprise it was not Jonathan, but instead a blond boy with a pointed face. A silver badge that had the letter P stamped on it winked at her from the front of his robes and she shifted nervously in his grasp. She knew what that badge meant -- she had seen a picture of just such a badge in _Hogwarts, A History_. It was a prefect badge, which meant that this boy was a prefect. 

Ruth Ann had asked Jonathan about prefects when she had first come across the word, as the Muggle elementary school she had gone to had never had anyone called by that name. Jonathan had had a hard time explaining what a prefect exactly did and had eventually ended up simply telling her that they were "glorified hall monitors, they can punish you if you break a rule." 

Standing there in the light mist, she stared up at the older boy, scared out of her wits, sure that she had unwittingly broken some rule and was about to be given detention. And I haven't even gotten to the school yet, she mentally moaned to herself. 

"What do you think you're doing, pushing other people around?" sneered the blonde, still not relaxing his grip on her cloak. 

"But I -- I sl-slipped. The platform was wet, I slipped!" she cried desperately, tears welling up in her eyes. 

"I bet you think you don't have to respect your elders and can push them out of the way," the blonde continued, obviously enjoying this. He was about to say something more, but at that moment the bushy haired prefect from the train burst through the crowd. The blonde prefect immediately let go of her cloak and stepped away from Ruth Ann. 

"Malfoy! What do you think you're doing with that poor first year? Look, you've made her cry," the girl -- Hermione, Ruth Ann remembered dazedly -- admonished the blonde. 

"I was just helping her along, Granger," said the blonde coolly. "She chose to cry on her own accord." He flounced off towards the carriages, disappearing into the crowd. 

Obviously still steaming, Hermione crouched next to Ruth Ann and put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey there, don't cry..." 

"I didn' mean t' push 'm," Ruth Ann sobbed. "I was trying to go to the lady," she gestured to the woman with the lantern, "but the platform was wet and I slipped." 

"It's all right, I believe you. Malfoy can be a real bully sometimes, don't you mind him. Now, do you think you can make it over Professor Grubbly-Plank by yourself?" Hermione asked kindly. Sniffing, Ruth Ann nodded her head enthusiastically and attempted a weak smile. Grinning, Hermione stood up straight, "All right then. I'll see you around the castle, hm? Bye!" She gave a wave, then plunged into the sea of people. 

Rubbing at her eyes, Ruth Ann walked towards the woman with the lantern, making sure that this time she was very careful of where she stepped. She hated the fact that she was crying, it was always like this. If she got upset or angry around people she did not know, she immediately burst into tears, which had scared the heck out of more than one of her former classmates on previous occasions. While she was grateful that Hermione had rescued her from the other prefect, she was a bit upset that she had come across as a crybaby to the older girl. 

Ruth Ann sniffed and straightened her shoulders as she joined her fellow first years who were gathered around the woman with the lantern. I can do this, she told herself, it can't be any worse than the first day of school in elementary school. But even as she tried to reassure herself with these words, she knew that she was only trying to fool herself, and not even doing a very good job of it. 

---

::sniff sniff:: Malfoy's a bully ::throws shoes at him:: It is entirely possible to sleep while at the same time sitting up straight in a moving vehicle. My brother does it all the time. Freaks guests out like nothing else XD 

Next chapter: Ruth Ann notes the irony of houses; a tower is constructed; innovation and math -- tragic downfalls of a genius 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world both belong to J.K. Rowling, several publishing companies (Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Scholastic Books), Warner Brothers, Inc., and as I'm not a part of any of them I therefore own none of it. I'm making absolutely no money off of this, please don't sue. I do, however, own the following: Geoley, the Hunter family, Cassiope MacColin, Sojin Young, most all of the first years, and the story itself. So nyah : P 

Because I know someone's going to think it, I'm saying it again: _Yes_, this story is self-insertion. But. That does _not_ means it contains Mary-Sues. Really. Ruth Ann couldn't save the world if her life depended on it. Seriously 

**Chapter 4**

Still calming her nerves after her encounter with the blonde prefect, Ruth Ann barely noticed most of the boat ride that took her across the lake, or, for that matter, any of the rest of the trip to the castle. Suddenly she found herself standing in front of the large door of the castle. A tall witch was looking down her nose at Ruth Ann and the rest of the first years. Ruth Ann gulped and fervently hoped that Hermione had set the record straight and she was not about to be in trouble for bumping into the blonde prefect. 

The woman who had met them at the platform step aside, and the tall witch introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, telling them that they were to follow her. Trailing along with the rest of the first years, Ruth Ann kept her eyes on her feet, intent on making sure she did not trip over anything or anyone. 

Finally, they stopped in front of a small room. All of the first years crowded together, more than a few nervously wiping the palms of their hands on their robes. Professor McGonagall turned to them and began explaining about the four different houses, and how important your house would be to you while you went to Hogwarts. 

Ruth Ann ignored the speech, choosing to instead play with a hangnail she had discovered on her left forefinger. She had just finished gnawing it off, and was in the process of using her tongue to thread it between her two front teeth, when Professor McGonagall's sharp instruction to form a line cut through her concentration. Grumbling to herself, Ruth Ann obediently got into line and followed the boy in front of her as they followed Professor McGonagall through the double doors that led into the Great Hall of Hogwarts. 

Her first impression was that it was rather crowded, and she looked around nervously at the four long tables where the students sat in hopes of spotting her brother. But if Jonathan was there, she could not find him. Everyone in the hall was staring at her it seemed and she quickly turned her attention to what was right in front of her, which meant that she ended up staring with a great deal of concentration at a head of bushy black hair, but this did not bother her in the least. 

Ruth Ann was a bit surprised, however, when the wizard's hat on the stool at the front of the room began to sing a rather catchy song through a rip near its brim. Fascinated, she listened to the hat's song. As she made out what the hat was singing, she had to clap her hands over her mouth to keep a snicker from escaping. The hat was refuting everything that Professor McGonagall had said earlier about house loyalty! And, from the glazed looks on the faces of the other first years, it did not seem that anyone else had noticed this -- though Ruth Ann did think that the girl with a long brown braid who was standing behind her might be silently laughing as well. 

The song eventually came to an end, and Professor McGonagall told them that they were to wait until she had called their name, at which point they must then put the hat on and it would tell them what house they would be in. 

"Abercrombie, Evan." 

A boy who looked very scared stumbled to the front and pulled on the hat. There was a tense moment, and then the rip near the brim opened, and shouted "GRIFFYINDOR!" There was a tide of applause from one table as Evan took off the hat and walked over to what Ruth assumed was the table for Gryffindor house. 

Other students were called forward, including the black boy in front of her, and then, all too soon, Professor McGonagall had reached the end of the H's. 

"Hunter, Ruth Ann." 

Fumbling slightly, Ruth Ann concentrated on her feet as she walked to the front of the room. Everyone was staring at her, and she was trying very hard not to shake. Yet again she wished she was at Golden Poppy, which did not have silly things like houses or public displays of humiliation. Lifting the hat, she jammed it down on her head as she sat down on the stool. It settled slightly, falling down over her eyes. 

To her surprise, a small voice spoke into her ear. "What, another Yank?" it asked, though it did not seem very annoyed, to Ruth Ann's relief. Then she felt the strangest sensation, as if someone was sifting through her memories. "Hum. Not much bravery in you, is there? A bit, but most of that is hot-headedness. You procrastinate when you can, and aren't above skipping out on harder tasks. What cunning you possess is seriously hindered by general silliness. Your ambition is about average. Actually, you're a very average child overall -- did you know that?" 

Ruth Ann snorted and rolled her eyes, and muttered to herself, "Tell that to my mom, and she'd have a hysteric fit!" 

The hat continued to search with a somewhat disappointed air, until declared with a defeated tone, "Well, you're quiet intelligent and enjoy learning new things. I suppose you'll have to go to RAVENCLAW!" 

Jumping at the pure volume of the last word, Ruth Ann carefully pulled off the hat and put it on the stool as she hopped down. Glancing around the hall, she jogged off to the table that seemed to be clapping the hardest -- surely this had to be where the Ravenclaws sat. 

Walking past the open places that people had cleared for her, she slipped into a seat at the far end of the table next the double doors. She twiddled with the fork in front of her, pointedly ignoring what was going on in the front of the hall. Her tablemates' attentions were focused on the Sorting, which suited her fine -- it meant that no one was looking at her anymore, and Ruth Ann found this to be a nice relief. 

She was in the middle of attempting the construction of a tower formed solely of silverware and a napkin, when suddenly the entire table broke into applause. Surprised, Ruth Ann nearly fell off the bench onto the floor. She glanced around wildly, trying to figure out what had happened, when it suddenly occurred to her that another person must have just been sorted into Ravenclaw house. Rolling her eyes, she went back to playing with her silverware. 

It was not until the name "Young, Sojin," cut through her concentration that Ruth Ann actually looked up at the front of the hall. She smiled as she spotted the girl who had nearly been run down earlier in the day by her trunk. It occurred to Ruth Ann that if Sojin was sorted into Ravenclaw as well then she would know at least one other person in her house. But it was not to be. The hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" before Sojin had even worn it for half a second. 

Ruth Ann sighed and turned back to her partially constructed tower. Only one more name called after Sojin's, after which an old man stood up behind the teachers' table and spoke. She paid no mind to the words that he spoke, however. Instead she stared at the plates that ran up and down the table. Where before they had lain empty, they now stood full of food. Ruth Ann came to the conclusion that this was a truly wondrous thing, as her stomach was telling her that she was rather late with lunch today. 

As soon as she saw the other students begin to eat, Ruth Ann set to work on filling her own stomach. She was a bit shy when it came to asking for platters to be passed -- something that she had to do a lot, sitting at the very end of the table like she was -- but she did manage to eventually satisfy her aching hunger. 

Sighing contentedly, Ruth Ann looked up the table she was sitting at, about to try and figure out who else was a fellow first year, when she noticed that a hush had fallen across the hall. Confused, she glanced about in an attempt to determine the cause of the silence. At last her eyes lit upon the table in the front of the hall, where she saw that the old man, whom she presumed was the headmaster, had risen again. Ruth Ann groaned, not at all looking forward to more speeches. 

This time, however, Ruth Ann made sure to listen closely to the rules concerning the Forbidden Forest and the use of magic in the corridors. She wanted to make sure that she did not unintentionally break any of them. Her earlier confrontation with the blonde prefect had served to scare her out of any intention she might have had of trying to slip past the rules. 

When another professor, this one introduced as Professor Umbridge, began her own little speech, Ruth Ann nearly buried her head in her arms. Obviously the woman had never taught a day in her life. "I'm sure we'll be very good friends," indeed! Ruth Ann snorted to herself with amusement. Her own mother taught in a Muggle elementary school, and Ruth Ann had been to Mrs. Hunter's classroom enough times to know that _no_ teacher _ever_ said anything like that to their students at anytime past first grade. If nothing else, it was a sure way to get on the wrong side of the students, who would inevitably resent being treated like small children. 

What followed, however, surprised her even more. Though she had trouble understanding more than half of what was being said, she was able to apprehend the basic gist of what Professor Umbridge said. To her horror, Ruth Ann was shocked by the realization that Professor Umbridge was not so much a teacher as a politician. A politician who seemed to feel that progress and innovation were bad things. 

Hyperventilating slighting, Ruth Ann glanced down at her lap to see that she was desperately clenching at her robes in fear. No innovation? Lord, she was going to be tragic in Defense Against the Dark Arts, if that was true! More than once in elementary school, Ruth Ann had been chastised for choosing to go about assignments in her own way. Often "her own way" meant some roundabout manner completely different from the traditional way that took less time and gave the same results. Hopefully Defense Against the Dark Arts was _nothing_ like math! 

Ruth Ann was still trying to come up with any number of ways to persuade her parents to let her return home, when a Ravenclaw prefect tapped her shoulder. When the girl saw Ruth Ann's scared face, she smiled kindly. 

"Hi, I'm Padma Patil. Come on, I'm to show you where our common room is." 

Ruth Ann nodded and rose to join the group of eleven year olds that were following Padma and another prefect. They left the Great Hall and immediately turned towards the west side of the castle. 

Unlike the students around her, Ruth Ann was quite lucid when they finally reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room, a bookcase leaning against the wall to the west tower. She watched in interest as the other prefect, Anthony Goldstein according to what had been said among the first years as they walked, came up next to the bookcase and spoke what she assumed to be the password. The bookcase to slide sideways along the wall to reveal an opening. 

The first year girls were led off to their dormitory by Padma, and a few of them exclaimed in surprise when they saw that their trunks waiting for them there. Leaning against the door frame, Padma smiled. "This room will be where you will all sleep for the next seven years. You don't have to go to sleep right away, but you're probably all very tired, and besides, classes start tomorrow morning, so you should get to bed as soon as possible." 

Silence descended upon the room momentarily once the prefect had left. Then two girls began chatting with each other as they rummaged through their trunks for their pajamas. Apparently, they had both met on the train ride over, and were excited that they were now in the same house. The silence broken, the rest of the girls turned to begin their own preparations. 

Ruth Ann sat down on her own bed, staring at the brilliant blue curtains that hung about it. She was not the slightest bit tired despite the fact that it was well past ten o'clock. Her body was still on Pacific Standard time and firmly believed it to be mid afternoon. As a result of this mix-up, sleep was the farthest thing from her mind. She gently bounced herself up and down on the blue bedspread, kicking her heels against the bed frame as she tried to decide what to do. 

Ruth Ann recognized the girl with bed next to her own as the girl who had been equally amused by the Sorting Hat's song earlier in the evening. Still bouncing slightly, she watched as the other girl took a nightshirt out of her trunk and exchanged it for her robes. 

Bored, Ruth Ann sighed and fell back on her bed. How long was it going to take her to adjust to this stupid time difference, anyway? 

"Um... you're Ruth Ann, right?" a quiet voice asked her. 

Ruth Ann pushed herself up into a sitting position and was surprised to see that the girl from the next bed over standing right beside to her. "Yeah, I'm Ruth Ann. Why?" 

"I was just wondering why you're not getting ready for bed like everyone else. I mean, Padma did say that we have class tomorrow, so wouldn't it be in your best interests to get some sleep now?" 

"I slept on the train," said Ruth Ann. She began examining her hair for split ends, pulling them apart when she found them. "Besides, I'm going to be out of it tomorrow morning anyway. Jet lag and all that good stuff, you know." 

"Jet... lag? What's that?" The girl sat down on her own bed, drawing her legs up underneath herself. 

"Not Muggle-born, are you? Jet lag is what happens when you travel across a whole bunch of time zones. See, I'm from California, over in America, and I haven't gotten used to the seven hour time difference yet -- my brother and I flew here day before yesterday. For me it's the middle of the afternoon," Ruth Ann explained. "Say, would you mind waking me up for breakfast in the morning? I don't want to sleep through it, but I know I'm going to if someone doesn't wake me up." 

The other girl laughed. "I'm the last person you should ask if you want to get up early -- I usually stay up until two and then wake up at noon the next day. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Someone'll probably notice that you're not in class before lunch rolls around." She yawned and rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Gods, I'm tired. See you in the morning -- or afternoon -- g'night..." She crawled under the covers of her bed, quickly falling fast asleep. 

Ruth Ann was suddenly struck by how quiet it was in the room. She glanced at the other beds and saw that their occupants were asleep as well. As she turned this fact over in her mind, the candles that sat in wall sconces about the room flickered once, twice, then went out. They did not come back on. It appeared that this was an obvious and not-so-subtle hint that they should all be in bed, if not asleep. Grumbling, Ruth Ann got up off the bed and changed into her pajamas, draping the robe she had been wearing across the top of her trunk. She left her Muggle clothing in a pile on the floor, after having ascertained that the room contained no dirty laundry hamper. 

Grabbing Harry the Wonder Bear from her trunk, she lifted her covers and curled up beneath them. She stared into the darkness of the dormitory, listening to the soft murmurs made by the other girls. A long time passed before she fell asleep. 

---

I don't get along very well with most math teachers. I have yet to understand why I have to do it _their_ way when my way not only works just as well, but is also faster and easier to understand. Prediction: Ruth Ann is doomed ::nods::. 

Next chapter: a change in POV; you don't think it might be catching, do you?; the building blocks of magic. 


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world both belong to J.K. Rowling, several publishing companies (Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Scholastic Books), Warner Brothers, Inc., and as I'm not a part of any of them I therefore own none of it. I'm making absolutely no money off of this, please don't sue. I do, however, own the following: Geoley, the Hunter family, Cassiope MacColin, Sojin Young, nearly all of the first years, and the story itself. So nyah :P 

**_Important!_** This is a fic about _original characters_. Nearly all of them are based on _real people_ (including myself). _This does not automatically make them Mary-Sues!_ Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but it's very, very true. Now that this has been said, let us proceed with the story :) 

**Chapter 5**

Tying up the end of her braid, Cassiope MacColin cast a glance at the bed next to hers. Though it was already seven o'clock, she had yet to seen any indications of life from behind the curtains that surrounded Ruth Ann's bed. Cassiope turned around to find two more of her dorm mates, Nimuë Chandler and Parnelle Oaken, casting similar looks at the silent blue curtains of the Yank's bed. Finally, all three girls looked at each other. 

"Should we try waking her up?" Parnelle asked tentatively, winding a strand of her black hair around a finger nervously. 

"I don't know... She said last night that she's not used to being here yet. She has, um, let jag?" Cassiope replied, frowning slightly and uncertain if she had correctly remembered the term Ruth Ann had used the night before. 

After a hurried discussion between the three girls, it was decided that they would risk a quick peek behind the bed curtains. Cassiope was the first one to regain the use of her mouth and voice what they was in all their minds after the curtains had been drawn back. "Chicken pajamas?" she choked. 

"And she has a stuffed bear, too," Parnelle added wide-eyed. "It's so cute..." 

A smirk blooming on face, Nimuë clapped her hands together happily. "I just thought of something! Since she's obviously not ready to go to breakfast, let alone class, it is our duty as her house mates to help her out. Come on, girls, give me a hand!" This said, she grabbed one of Ruth Ann's arms and started pulling the comatose girl toward the edge of the bed. 

Once Ruth Ann had been dragged to the edge of her bed, they proceeded to sit her upright, letting her legs dangle down over the side. Stepping back to study her handiwork, Nimuë frowned. "No one should be able to sit up that straight while remaining in a deep sleep state," she grumbled. 

Still a bit nervous, Parnelle chanced a quick glance at the diminutive blonde standing next to her. "Well, we've got her sitting upright, Nimuë. What are we supposed to do with her now?" 

"Dress her and take her down to breakfast. Cassiope, see if you can find a fresh robe and some socks in her trunk; Parnelle, you're going to have to fix her hair." Nimuë proceeded to issue orders, and it was not very long before they had Ruth Ann dressed, presentable, and standing up in front of the door – still asleep and completely unaware of the actions of her fellow Ravenclaws. 

Taking the stairs one step at a time, the girls were able to get Ruth Ann down to the common room with little difficulty. Nimuë went first, guiding the American carefully down the spiral staircase, Cassiope gave Ruth Ann encouraging little shoves from behind all the while. When they reached the bottom, they found that they had to wait for Parnelle, who had apparently forgotten something and had to run back up to their room to fetch it. Carefully holding one of Ruth Ann's arms in order to keep the girl from falling over, Cassiope turned to look at the stairs that led to the tower dormitories right when Parnelle burst into the room, breathing heavily. "Hey, sorry about that. I just thought that it would be a good idea to get this," she said, holding up a slightly grubby wand for them to see. "Even if she _is_ asleep, we shouldn't make her go around without her wand." 

The wand was slipped into Ruth Ann's pocket and the group pushed on out into the corridor, then off towards the Great Hall. Before they had gone very far the found that they had to stop again, as Cassiope had the bright idea of hooking Ruth Ann's hands onto the back of her belt so that it was not necessary for someone to have to guide her by hand. Curiously enough, this trick seemed to work, as the sleeping student had no troubles keeping up with her house mates. 

As she neared the big double doors that lead to the Great Hall, Cassiope was surprised to see a group similar to theirs, only this one was made up of Hufflepuffs several years above them. Like the first years, they too were guiding a sleepy looking student, this one a boy. A boy with black hair spotted them and nudged his sleepy friend in the side. The sleepy Hufflepuff blinked a few times, then rubbed his eyes and peered at them. He smiled. "Well," he yawned, "it's nice to see that someone's taking care of Ruth Ann." 

Nimuë frowned and gave him a suspicious look. "Who're you?" she demanded. Cassiope snickered slightly at her year mate's protectiveness, though she hid her smile behind her hand when the blonde girl glanced at her. 

"'M her brother," the boy said sleepily, resisting the tug of his friend. "See you... 'round," he mumbled, giving his friend and allowing himself to be dragged into the Great Hall. 

"Gee," Parnelle said in surprise, "there's more than one of them – imagine that! Cassiope, you don't think this... what did you call it?" 

"Let jag." 

"Let jag, then, is contagious, do you?" 

They had reached the Ravenclaw table. Cassiope carefully detached Ruth Ann from her belt, and sat her down on the bench before seating herself. In reply to Parnelle's question she shook her head. "I don't think so, she – Ruth Ann, that is – said last night that it was because she's still tired from flying here from America." 

Sliding in across the table from Cassiope, Nimuë let out a low whistle. "Whew, imaging that – _flying_ from _America_! I bet her butt is killing her, I know mine would. Well, at least she's prepared for when we have flying lessons..." 

A boy sitting to Cassiope's right looked at the girls in amazement, then began to laugh, "Oh, oh, this is too much – you three actually think that she flew on a broom! Haven't you ever heard of an airplane?" 

Nimuë turned and gave him a look that was fast on its way becoming infamous among those who ate at the Ravenclaw table. "What, pray tell, is an 'airplane'?" 

"It's a sort of flying machine that Muggles use," another boy said. "I'm Jamie Lockwood," he added, "and he's Barney Kighting." 

"I remember, you," Parnelle piped up. "You were in front of me in the line for the Sorting last night. You were making faces at Professor McGonagall's back." 

"Speaking of Professor McGonagall," Cassiope broke in before any sort of argument could erupt, "have any of you looked at your schedule of classes yet?" She began buttering her toast with one hand while she spooned porridge into Ruth Ann's mouth with the other. 

There was a general rustle of robes and paper as the other first years checked their pockets to check if they had thought to bring their schedule to breakfast. Finally, Jamie triumphantly held up a ragged bit of paper. "Here it is. Let's see... Today we have Charms after breakfast, then Herbology, lunch, after lunch double Transfiguration with the Gryffindors, and finally Defense Against the Dark Arts," he announced to the other first years around him. 

Swallowing a mouthful of egg, Barney frowned. "What's 'Transfiguration'? I've never heard of it before." 

Still spooning porridge into Ruth Ann's mouth, Cassiope answered his question, "It's where you change one thing into another thing. Like turning straw into gold or water into wine. My sister, Neaghb, told me about it." Having reached the bottom of the bowl of porridge, Cassiope set down the spoon, pushed Ruth Ann's mouth shut, and wiped the other girl's face off with a napkin. "We should get going. Class starts soon, and we still need to get our books and stuff from the tower." 

They were on their way out of the hall, having once again hooked the sleeping girl's hands to Cassiope's belt, when a black-haired Gryffindor ran up to them, caught Ruth Ann's arm, and started to talk to her. "Ruth Ann! It's great to see you again. I tried to get a spot near you in the line for the Sorting last night, but this other girl just pushed me out of the way, talk about rude! Anyway, there's this girl who's also in Gryffindor, and she's really neat, and..." 

Ruth Ann, it was needless to say, continued to sleep, though she did stop walking when the other girl caught her arm. Cassiope, who had been jerked back by Ruth Ann's sudden lack of movement, turned to see why the other girl had stopped. Seeing the Gryffindor, she gave an apologetic smile. "She can't hear you. She's still asleep she has let jag," Cassiope explained. 

"Jet lag," Barney corrected her. Cassiope pointedly ignored him. 

"Oh. Weird... So you just attached her to your belt and she started walking with you?" asked the shorter girl, who was now studying how Ruth Ann had been hooked onto Cassiope's belt. 

"Pretty much. I'm Cassiope MacColin, by the way." Cassiope smiled, and held out her hand. The other girl grinned, immediately taking Cassiope's hand and shaking it vigorously. 

"I'm Sojin Young. I actually met Ruth Ann on the platform yesterday – her trunk ran into me," explained the Gryffindor, grinning. "Look, I have to get going – I have Herbology and I need to trek all the way over to the greenhouses – but I'll see you around, all right?" Still smiling, she slipped through double doors to the Great Hall. 

Somehow – Cassiope was never sure quite how – all of the first year Ravenclaws in their little group made it back to their common room, grabbed their bags and books, and found their way to the Charms classroom with time to spare. Sighing with relief, Cassiope dumped her book bag on an empty desk near the front of the class, then proceeded to disentangled Ruth Ann's hands from her belt. As she did this, she could not help but wonder whether Ruth Ann was ever going to wake up for their first day of classes. While Cassiope did not especially mind helping Ruth Ann to breakfast and their classes, if she continued to sleep through everything she was going to miss parts of the actual class, which would inevitably lead her falling behind due to missed material. 

Sighing, Cassiope decided that if necessary she could always poke Ruth Ann in the side and wake her up. Stepping back, she stared at sleeping girl. Now that Ruth Ann was no longer attached to her belt, Cassiope had no idea how she was going to get the Yank to sit at a desk. Even if she did manage to get Ruth Ann to sit, how would she get her up again once class had ended? 

She was about to ask Nimuë for help when a tiny wizard – shorter than even Parnelle – entered the classroom from one of the side doors. Recognizing him as one of the teachers she had seen eating at the high table during dinner the night before, Cassiope quickly sunk into her seat, pulling Ruth Ann down with her. Thankfully, Ruth Ann made no resistance to this effort, settling down in her seat promptly, if somewhat ungracefully. 

The Ravenclaw first years watched as their Charms teacher climbed up the stack of books that had been placed on the chair behind his desk. From his position atop the books, he smiled and clapped his hands. "Hello. I'm Professor Flitwick and I will be both your Charms professor and your Head of House during the next seven years you spend here at Hogwarts. Now, before we start on some of the basic Charms you'll be learning this week, I'd like us all to introduce ourselves to each other, so that we all know who is who." 

Starting on the side of the room closest to the door, each student introduced him or herself to the rest of the class. As she resumed her seat after her own introduction, Cassiope suddenly realized that the next (and last) person to go was Ruth Ann. Who was still asleep. Cassiope rubbed her forehead and chanced a glance at the professor. Yes, the cheerful little wizard was looking expectantly at Ruth Ann. Sighing in exasperation, Cassiope took a deep breath. "And on my right is Ruth Ann Hunter. She's not awake yet because she has let jag–" 

"Jet lag!" 

"Shut up, Barney. Ruth Ann is from America and she's not used to our time zone yet," Cassiope explained, crossing her fingers out of sight under her desk. Hopefully Professor Flitwick would not count Ruth Ann's somatic state against her. Cassiope had met the girl only just the night before, but for some reason she felt it was her duty to keep track of the Ruth Ann, if for no other reason than that she was the only one in the room who had actually spoken to a lucid Ruth Ann. 

Professor Flitwick gave Cassiope a smile of understanding. Apparently he already knew about Ruth Ann's need to adjust to the time difference between Hogwarts and wherever Ruth Ann came from. Dimly, Cassiope realized that the professor would most likely have had a similar experience with Ruth Ann's brother, if that was indeed the identity of the Hufflepuff boy they had seen outside the Great Hall earlier that morning. "Very good, very good. Now, with that out of the way, who can tell me some different types of charms that might be used on a daily basis? Mr Lockwood?" He nodded to Jamie, whose arm was straining upwards, waving back and forth, in a desperate move to be called on. 

"Incendio!" Jamie said brightly. 

"Alohamora," Cassiope volunteered. 

"Scourgify," a boy with shaggy brown hair grumbled, "my mum loves that one." 

"Isn't there a severing charm?" Edmund Gammun asked nervously. 

"Jelly-legs," Nimuë said, a smirk on her face. 

Lex Hawksman turned around and glared at her, "That's not a charm, that's a jinx." 

"It's still a charm," Nimuë shot back 

"Miss Chandler brings up a good point, though I highly doubt that any of you will be using the jelly-legs jinx on a daily basis. Curses, jinxes, and hexes are all charms. They are simply grouped together different categories in order to help define how they are mainly used – in this case, all three are charms that may result in less than savory affects on whatever they are cast upon. Miss Linar, if you understand how a curse works, what else can you do with that information?" 

Yawning hugely, the girl gave Professor Flitwick a sleepy look. "You know what will happen if you use it?" 

"And if you know that, what else do you know?" The class stared at the professor, unsure of what he was asking for. Finally, Nimuë tentatively raised her hand. "Miss Chandler?" 

"Well, if you know how a curse works, like what will happen if you use it, don't you also have an idea of what to use as a counter-curse? Because the charm that would get rid of the curse would be the opposite of whatever the curse does?" 

"Excellent, excellent! Two points to Ravenclaw! Now, going back to the charms that you have mentioned," Flitwick nodded to the chalkboard behind him, across which an enchanted piece of chalk had been moving earlier, recording the different charms as students mentioned them. "What do all these have in common, besides being charms?" 

Cassiope grimaced at the absolute silence that answered this question. It looked as if no one knew the answer, and no one wanted to be the sacrificial goat and volunteer a response, however erroneous it might be. She was about to raise her hand in order to give a mediocre answer – anything to get the class moving again – when a new voice spoke up. 

"Everywhere... they're everywhere." 

Everyone was shocked as they realized that the speaker had been none other than Ruth Ann, who had apparently begun to talk in her sleep. 

Professor Flitwick smiled at her. "Well, it seems Miss Hunter knows the answer, even if she isn't exactly up to actively participating today. All these charms are, indeed, 'everywhere.' They are used for many different specialties of magic; not one belongs to only one category. For example, you might use Incendio in Potions class in order to light the fire under your cauldron, while the jelly legs curse is actually a type of transfiguration charm – it involves transfiguring the state of a person's legs." He winked at Nimuë, and added, "Though I do not believe that Professor McGonagall will be teaching any of you that particular charm in Transfiguration. Charms can be found in nearly all branches of magic. Because of this, they are sometimes referred to as 'the building blocks' of magic." 

As Professor Flitwick moved away from basic charm theory and onto the more practical, hands-on portion of the class, Cassiope dipped her quill into her ink pot and began quickly scribble notes on a fresh sheet of parchment. If nothing else, the notes would serve to help Ruth Ann catch up once she had finally adjusted to the time difference. Cassiope became so interested in what Professor Flitwick was saying that she lost track of the time. It came as a surprise to her when Professor Flitwick wound the class to a close and informed them that they now had a half an hour break to use as they pleased before their next class began. 

Having packed up her writing supplies and her parchment, Cassiope turned to confront the problem of extracting Ruth Ann from her seat. At breakfast, it had been a simple matter of standing behind Ruth Ann and pulling upwards on the back of her robe. But it did not look like that method would work here, as the back of the chair was in the way, decidedly different form the benches that stood next to the massive tables in the Great Hall. 

Screwing up her courage, Cassiope leaned over sleeping girl and was about to give a wholehearted attempt at dragging her up from her seat, when Ruth Ann let out a big yawn and raised a hand to rub at her eyes. 

"Nnn," she said, still half asleep. "What time is it? I had the weirdest dream where I went to school and..." Ruth Ann trailed off as her eyes adjusted to the light of the classroom and finally managed to focus on Cassiope's face. "And you're definitely not my mom." 

"No. No, I'm not. I'm glad to see you're finally awake, though. Now I don't have to figure out how to get you out of your seat," said Cassiope, smirking slightly. 

"I don't know if 'awake' is exactly the term for this situation," said Ruth Ann with another yawn. She lowered the hand that had been rubbing her eyes, and glanced about the room. "Say, where did Chickenman go?" 

–––

Curiously enough, one of my betas asked me whether I took Flitwick's speech about charms being "the building blocks of magic" from the books. I am proud to say that no, I did not. It is completely my own – which just goes to show that I think about these sorts of things way too much. 

He's everywhere, he's everywhere! Chickenman! 

Next chapter: dwarf philodendrons; on the subject of foreign food; a cat; extraterrestrials and their Plots. 


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world both belong to J.K. Rowling, several publishing companies (Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Scholastic Books), Warner Brothers, Inc., and as I'm not a part of any of them I therefore own none of it. I'm making absolutely no money off of this, please don't sue. I do, however, own the following: geoley, the Hunter family, and nearly all of the first years.  
Thanks to Blue Jeans for the beta :) 

You know the drill, but yes, this is a fic about _original characters_. Nearly all of them are based on _real people_ (myself included). _This does not automatically make them Mary-Sues!_ Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but it's very, very true. 

**Chapter 6**

"Who!" 

"Chickenman. He wanted my opinion on something, can't remember what, but I couldn't understand what he was talking about... It must have been hard for him to talk with that beak," said Ruth Ann, sure that this would explain everything. She rubbed her eyes a bit more, then stretched. "I guess it was just a dream. You know it's bad when you start dreaming about fictional characters from your parents' childhood." 

"Okay..." 

Ruth Ann glanced around the room, taking in the rows of seats and desks, then turned to study the girl beside her. "So, if you're not my mom, who are you? And why were you trying to get me to stand up?" 

"I'm Cassiope McColin – didn't you pay any attention at all to the Sorting last night?" Cassiope demanded, tossing her long braid back over her shoulder with a huff. 

"Nope," said Ruth Ann proudly. "It was boring. I made a tower out of my silverware instead. And my napkin. And my plate... It was awesome – I was almost sad when I had to stop." 

Cassiope stared at her housemate. "You are a strange, strange person, Ruth Ann." 

"Thanks. So... Cassiopeia – that's a constellation, right? Can I call you Cassie?" 

"My name is Cassiope, not Cassiopeia. And no, you cannot call me Cassie, I abhor that nickname," ground out Cassiope. 

"Okay, _Cassiope_. Anyway, do you know why we're not in our room? Usually when I wake up in the morning I find myself in bed, not in... Is this a classroom? Why am I in a classroom? I didn't almost sleep through a class, did I? That would be horrible, just think of all the neat stuff I would miss out on!" 

Cassiope stared at Ruth Ann, obviously unsure of how to answer these question. "Well, you didn't almost sleep through a class – Charms just finished. Nimuë, Parnelle, and I got you up and to breakfast and to class. It's all right though," she reassured Ruth Ann quickly, seeing the look of despair on the other girl's face, "Professor Flitwick isn't mad at you for sleeping through class. You even answered a question in your sleep!" 

"Darn, I was really hoping I wouldn't sleep through. Maybe I'll be more adjusted to the time difference tomorrow," Ruth Ann said with a sigh. "Thanks for getting me up, though – you really didn't have to do that, and I appreciate it. So, if class is over, why are we just standing around? Where do we have to be next?" 

"We have a break now, but it's Herbology next, so we should probably start trekking to the greenhouses." Cassiope gathered up her things and nodded towards the door. 

"Mm, okay," Ruth Ann said in agreement as she looked around for her own bag. She suddenly squeaked in surprise. "My bag! I don't suppose all of you remembered to bring it when you trotted me out to breakfast?" The other girl's eyes widened with shock and she shook her head. 

"Come on! Maybe if we run we can make it back to the tower and still get to class on time," Cassiope said hurriedly, as she dashed out the door with Ruth Ann on her heals. 

As it turned out, both girls managed to retrieve Ruth Ann's bag from the Ravenclaw tower and still get to the greenhouses where Herbology was taught with time to spare. Slumping against the glass wall that separated her from the queer plants and things inside the clear structure, Ruth Ann attempted to regain her breath. "I'm... never... doing that... again," she informed Cassiope in between gasps for air. 

Cassiope, also panting, nodded and waved her hand ineffectually at Ruth Ann. "Was sure that prefect was going to spot us running and yell," she said when she had finally regained control of her breathing. "How'd you know about there was a side passage behind the false wall?" 

Ruth Ann shook her head, "Didn't, just panicked and ran to the right. 'm lucky I didn't run into a real wall. Have to remember that that passage's there." 

Cassiope made a sound of agreement, then brightened up as she spotted two girls coming towards them. Smiling slightly, she gave them a shy wave, which the black-haired girl returned. Ruth Ann eyed the newcomers with interest. "Who're they?" she asked Cassiope, curious. 

"You really didn't pay attention at the Sorting, did you? The one on the right is Nimuë," Cassiope pointed to a girl with pale blonde hair, "and the one on the left is Parnelle," this time she pointed to the girl who had waved. "It was Nimuë's idea to dress you and take you to breakfast and stuff. Parnelle helped also –Êshe's the one who remembered your wand." 

Ruth Ann nodded thoughtfully. "I'll have to thank them later, I suppose. Is everyone expected to know who everyone else is from the Sorting? I think I'm going to be in trouble if that's true." 

"I don't think it's really expected that much, it just helps," Cassiope reassured Ruth Ann, then fell silent as a friendly looking witch emerged from a greenhouse to their right. As she reached the cluster of first years, she introduced herself as Professor Sprout and began telling them about the different plants that they would be learning about in class that year. 

Ruth Ann yawned as Professor Sprout opened the door to one of the greenhouses and led them over to a cleared work table, passing out trowels as she set them to transplanting simple herbs from large flats to smaller, individual pots. The elderly witch walked among them, giving students tips to the proper care of basil, oregano, and thyme while at the same time outlining their uses in a number of potions of varying complexities. While Ruth Ann was sure it was fascinating stuff – both Cassiope and Parnelle were transfixed by the professor's words – she couldn't make herself truly interested in what they were learning. As the class came to a close, she gave a sigh of relief and cast her trowel aside, causing Cassiope to give her a questioning glance as she carefully set her own trowel on the table. 

"It's so boring," she complained, "just taking plants from one place and putting them in another place. I don't see how any of this is going to help me learn magic – we're probably going to learn all that stuff about how to use the plants in Potions anyway." 

"But... how can it be boring? Knowing how plants grow under different conditions will help us understand how they react with other ingredients in potions. I think it's fascinating," Cassiope said with a loving sigh. "And you won't feel so bored by it in the future when you figure out how many Sickles you can save just by growing a lot of the simpler potion ingredients in your own garden," she added matter-of-factly. 

"Oh, I don't know about saving money by growing my own ingredients," Ruth Ann said with a chuckle. "My mom has a tragic but lasting black thumb. She's the only person I've ever heard of who could end up with a _dwarf_ philodendron. She harps on it all the time. My dad's the one who has an okay hand with plants, though I think he may just have a soft-spot about the blackberry bramble in front of the house." She frowned and rubbed at a dirt stain on the breast of her robe, which only served to grind the dirt deeper into the cloth. "Dad loves blackberries. I like 'em too, but they stain like the dickens. Once I made the mistake of wearing a white shirt when we went blackberry picking on a camping trip." 

"You'll ramble on about just about anything if you're allowed to, won't you?" Cassiope asked as she cleaned up her work area and hoisted her bag. 

Ruth Ann shrugged, then hunted around under the table for her own bag. "I guess. Mom says that it's really hard to get me to talk, but that once I start it's even harder to get me to shut up. She's also annoyed by me saying completely random things without even realizing it." She fished a crumpled bit of paper out of her bag and smoothed it out on the table in order to read what was written on it. "Super! We have lunch now – another chance for me to observe what kinds crazy things you Brits eat and mock you in your lack of taste." 

Cassiope raised an eyebrow as they trudged out of the greenhouse, "You have absolutely no tact. You do realize that, don't you?" 

"I'm attending this school under protest. I figure anything I do wrong is just one more chance for me to be sent home early," Ruth Ann said with a shrug. "And any comments I make about the food aren't serious enough to go on my permanent record, so it's not like it really matters. Not that I pay attention to my permanent record anyway," Ruth Ann added thoughtfully. 

"You are a strange and confusing girl," Cassiope said solemnly as they walked through the courtyard to the great double doors at the front of the castle. 

"And yet you continue to follow me around," Ruth Ann said, her blue eyes wide. "I find this _fascinating_." 

Cassiope rolled her eyes and grumbled something about self-centered Yanks that Ruth Ann either decided to ignore or didn't hear. Cassiope was not quite sure which it was, though as they rounded the corner and entered the Great Hall, she decided it didn't really matter. 

Entering the Hall along with Cassiope, Ruth Ann was surprised to see that there were fewer people in the Hall for lunch than there had been for dinner the night before. However, as she made her way over to the Ravenclaw table, she came to the conclusion that this was logical, as not everyone would be finishing their classes at the same time. 

Also, it was not as if it students were required to come to lunch at all. Settling down on a bench, Ruth Ann noted more than a few older students nip in to grab some food from the Ravenclaw table, then leave just as quickly. She supposed that these students were living up to their house stereotype and rushing off to spend their lunch hour studying in the library. Ruth Ann shrugged this behaviour off – she wasn't about to change her eating habits just so that she could be a good little studious Ravenclaw. It seemed to her that this was taking house loyalty a bit too far. 

Instead, Ruth Ann reached out across the table and helped herself to a ham sandwich. Taking a bite, she let out a contented sigh. "You know," she said to Cassiope around a mouthful of ham, cheese, and bread, "the food's a lot better here than I thought it would be." 

"I suppose you envisioned us consuming raw flesh and drinking baby's blood out of skulls," Cassiope grumbled as snagged a sandwich for herself. 

"Naw, not what I meant," Ruth Ann answered, flapping her hand. "I didn't mean that the food is better than I thought British food would be, I meant that it was better than I thought school food could be. The Muggle elementary school that I went to didn't really have any good food. It would be cold, overcooked or undercooked, and sometimes just plain questionable – I knew kids who lived in fear of Mystery Meat Mondays. Most people only bought the hamburgers or the pizza. And it wasn't like those were–" 

She was cut off by the arrival of a bouncy, energetic ball of black robes in the form of Sojin Young, who had rushed over from the doors to where the Ravenclaws were sitting. "Wotcha, Cassiope! Ruth Ann – you're awake this time," she added brightly. 

"I was unfortunate enough to wake up in time for Herbology," Ruth Ann moaned. "It was horrible. The only good thing was that I got to play with dirt. Other than that... yerk." She grabbed her throat in both hands, bugged out her eyes, and stuck out her tongue in demonstration. "Cassiope had a good time, though. She just kept rambling on about how wonderfully interesting and fascinating it all was. Nearly made me sick." 

"I had Herbology first this morning," said Sojin. "It was fun! Professor Sprout is really interesting. I learned a lot." As Sojin spoke, another Gryffindor wandered up behind her. The new girl had curly brown hair that Ruth Ann thought rather resembled a bush –Êthough she would never tell the girl that to her face. 

"Sojin, are you going to come eat lunch or are you just going to talk until Transfiguration starts?" she asked. Noticing Cassiope and Ruth Ann, she smiled, "Hello, I'm Annabelle Lee." 

"She's Cassiope and I'm annoying," Ruth Ann said brightly. 

"She means her name is Ruth Ann," said Cassiope with a roll of her eyes. 

Sojin was pouting at Annabelle while the Ravenclaws made introductions. "But I don't want to go sit at our table. I want talk to Ruth Ann now that she's finally awake," she whined. 

"You could both eat lunch with us," Cassiope offered. "I don't think the professors will mind, as long as you don't cause any trouble." 

"Grand, I'm starving," moaned Sojin, who clambered onto the bench across the table from Ruth Ann. Hesitating only slightly, Annabelle joined her seconds later. "So you two just had Herbology," Sojin said, indicating to Cassiope and Ruth Ann with her fork. "What did you have before that?" 

"Charms," said Cassiope, while at the same time Ruth Ann replied, "Don't know." 

Annabelle set down the sandwich she had helped herself to, confused. "How can you not know what class you had this morning? Didn't you go?" 

"Oh, she went," Cassiope reassured the Gryffindor, "she was just asleep the entire time. She had let jag." 

"Jet lag," Ruth Ann and Annabelle corrected Cassiope automatically. A bit surprised, Ruth Ann turned to look at Annabelle, "You know about jet lag?" 

Annabelle shrugged, "I'm from a Muggle family, 'course I know about jet lag. So, where were you that you've got jet lag? The States?" 

"California," Ruth Ann explained. "Was born here, raised there, so I've got dual citizenship. My dad wanted my brother and me to go to Hogwarts. So. Spend the summer in California, spend the rest of the year here. 'S confusing, don't like it. Didn't want to come here anyway." 

The other girls protested Ruth Ann's dislike of Hogwarts in between eating their lunches, until a prefect noticed the noise they were making and tried to chase Sojin and Annabelle off to the Gryffindor table. The girls made faces at the prefect's back as they took their sandwiches and abandoned the Hall for the corridor, where they could finish their eating and talk without being sniped at. Since loitering in the halls set you up to be chastised by Filch,Êor so both Ruth Ann and Cassiope had both been told by their older siblings, they wandered in the direction of the Transfiguration classroom. 

Ruth Ann was licking the last of the crumbs from her fingers when they reached the Transfiguration room. Taking a bite out of her own sandwich, Annabelle cracked the door open and cautiously poked her head in. She pushed the door open the rest of the way and motioned for them to enter. 

The girls filed in, inspecting the apparently empty classroom. Ruth Ann perched herself on one of the desks in the front row, extracted her sketchbook from her bag, and proceeded to flip through it. Sojin wandered around the room, looking at the various pictures on the walls, munching on an apple she had stashed in a pocket of her robe earlier, while Annabelle sat down on the desk next to Ruth Ann's and finished off the last few bites of her sandwich. Cassiope made as if to join Ruth Ann, when she let out a happy sort of squeal. 

"Kitty!" she said, pointing to the large desk at the front of the room. Looking up from her sketchbook, Ruth Ann saw that there was indeed a cat peeking out from behind the desk. 

"Do you think it's Professor McGonagall's familiar?" wondered Annabelle as she came over to get a closer look. 

"Maybe. Look at those markings around her eyes! It looks just like she's wearing spectacles," cooed Cassiope. She crouched down and began petting the cat. The cat, once she had passed her initial mistrust of the girls who had intruded upon her domain, arched into Cassiope's hand, her tail sticking straight up in the air. A low rumbling sound filled the air as the other girls came over and joined Cassiope in coddling the cat. 

"Cats are evil," Ruth Ann said offhandedly as she skritched the feline under the chin. Her words seemed to knock the cat out of her haze of delight, and she backed up, hissing at the girl. "Well," said Ruth Ann said defensively, "not _you_. Cats like my cat back home. She's a psychotic nutcase. She and I get along really well, it's wonderful." 

Annabelle glanced up from calming the cat to give Ruth Ann a piercing look. "You are a strange girl, Ruth Ann." 

"Mm hm, 's great. Keeps everyone on their toes." 

The door opened, admitting group of chattering Ravenclaws, and the cat broke away from the girls to jump up onto the desk to watch as the newly arrived students started picking out seats. 

Annabelle elbowed Ruth Ann in the side, then nodded towards the cat. "Do you think it's trying to tell us something?" she muttered. 

"Looks like it," Ruth Ann replied as she tugged Cassiope towards the desk she had staked out earlier. 

"But... the kitty!" cried Cassiope, unwilling to be taken away from the cat. 

"Class is gonna start in a soon, Cass. We'd better get seated or we might be counted as late," Ruth Ann explained simply. "Maybe you can play with the kitty some more after class." 

"Cass?" Cassiope asked suspiciously as she allowed herself to be dragged away from the animal. 

Ruth Ann shrugged. "Hey, what can I say? I like nicknames. Anyway, it's not Cassie." 

They settled into their seats, and Ruth Ann had just started to pull a sheet of parchment and a quill from her bag when the door banged open. Ruth Ann looked up to see two boys Cassiope had identified as Barney and Jamie burst into the class and bound to an empty desk just as the bells that signaled the end of lunch and the start of class rang. 

"Cutting it a bit close, aren't you?" asked a girl who Ruth Ann remembered from Herbology, though she did not know her name. 

"Don't know why we bothered," Jamie said with a grin as he slid into his seat, "McGonagall's not even here yet." 

Cassiope frowned and looked to be about to speak, Ruth Ann supposed the other girl was going to tell the boys how important it was to be to class on time, when they were distracted by movement from the front classroom. The cat had jumped off of the desk. That was not what everyone was distracted by, however. In the midst of her leap from the desk to the floor, the cat was changing shape, becoming longer and a lot less furry. It happened so fast that Ruth Ann didn't even get a chance to gasp as the cat transformed into Professor McGonagall. 

Beside her, Cassiope eeped. "I was petting the teacher!" she squeaked. 

Ruth Ann goggled at Professor McGonagall, trying to wrap her head around what she had just seen. She had _read_ about witches and wizards that were talented enough to transform themselves into animals... What were they called again? Animus? Animorphs? Something like that. But never had Ruth Ann thought that she might actually meet one of those select few. "Coolness," she breathed, excited. "It's like something out of _A Wizard of Earthsea_. Do you think she can get stuck in cat form?" Ruth Ann whispered to Cassiope. 

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and glared at Ruth Ann. Gulping, Ruth Ann fell silent. "Good afternoon," the professor began, taking in the class with a single sweeping glance. "I am Professor McGonagall, and I will be your transfiguration teacher for the next seven years. Now, before we begin, does anyone know what, exactly, defines a transfiguration?" 

Cassiope started with surprise when Ruth Ann's hand shot up like a bullet beside her. From the look on McGonagall's face, she too had not been expecting the American to volunteer the answer. "Yes, Miss... Hunter, is it?" 

Ruth Ann nodded in acknowledgment of her name. "Yup. Um. Transfiguration is changing one thing into another thing. Like a yo-yo into an owl. My cousin did that once... only he didn't use a wand or anything," Ruth Ann said, frowning. 

"Correct, Miss Hunter, transfiguration is the art of transforming the shape and function of one item into another. This rearrangement of original articles atoms is often very complicated and some find it very frustrating as well. Because of this, we will be starting with simple transfigurations that employ a phenomenon which is called 'sympathetic magic.' How many of you have heard of sympathetic magic before?" Several hands went up, though none of them were as enthusiastic as Ruth Ann's had been when answering Professor McGonagall's first question. 

Eyes skimming over the room, the professor picked out a boy wearing Gryffindor colors who had his hand raised. "Mr Cathrop, do you know what sympathetic magic is?" 

The boy lowered is hand and shifted uneasily in his seat. "Well, um... To be sympathetic is to feel sorry for someone or feel what someone else feels, I guess. So is it magic that feels sorry for other magic? Professor?" 

Professor McGonagall's expression softened at the boy's nervousness. "Close. Sympathetic magic is magic involving items that feel favorably inclined towards each other. For example, you will start with simple tasks such as turning matches into pins. Both are around the same size and have similar shapes. Eventually you will progress so far as to be able to change guinea fowl into guinea pigs – another example of sympathetic magic. Simply by sharing similar names, the two animals are more favorably inclined to switching one form for the other." 

Then the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, "Sympathetic magic can be found in most any transfiguration, and is often part of the reason why that transfiguration is easier than it might be. For example, if I were to do this," she withdrew her wand from her sleeve and changed her desk into a pig, and then back again, "how would I be employing sympathetic magic? Miss Linar?" 

"Both the desk and the pig have four legs, Professor," said the Ravenclaw girl that Ruth Ann vaguely remembered from Herbology. 

"Precisely. Now, quills at the ready, I want you to write this down," she flicked her wand and a piece of chalk lifted up from the tray in front of the black board and began to write out information on the use of sympathetic magic in transfiguration. Ruth Ann dipped her quill and hurried to jot down what was being written, but it was not long before she was interspersing Professor McGonagall's lecture with various questions. She was very interested in transfiguration, if for no other reason than that she wanted to show up the cousin that had changed a yo-yo into an owl. 

Cassiope was grumbling slightly as she left the Transfiguration classroom with Ruth Ann, Parnelle, and Nimuë. She was upset that they had not been able to attempt any practical magic because of Ruth Ann's questions, to say nothing of being put out because she would not be able to visit with the kitty after class, since said kitty was actually the teacher. Parnelle tried to cheer her up by talking about Defense Against the Dark Arts, which they had next, but this only served to upset Ruth Ann instead. "I'm going to die in that class," she moaned. "It'll be like math, I _know_ it'll be like math. And I'm horrid at math! I even used to hide in the restroom when we did math in first grade." 

While Parnelle tried to reassure Ruth Ann that it was highly unlikely that Defense would be anything like math, Nimuë pondered allowed on whether they would be learning any interesting curses or jinxes in class. "Think of all the new things that I might learn! I read somewhere that over the summer someone invented a new hex that turns your toes into prunes. I'd use it on Gillichu, but I doubt he'd notice." 

Such was the conversation as they walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and picked out seats. Parnelle, who had abandoned reassuring Ruth Ann for a conversation with Cassiope about what they had done in Herbology, slid into a seat in front, Cassiope next to her. Having lost her lackey, Nimuë bullied a rather shy boy into letting her sit with him. Abandoned by the few people she knew, Ruth Ann found herself in a seat by herself near the middle of the class. 

As Ruth Ann sat there, trying to figure out how exactly she had ended up by herself, a girl came up beside her. "Is it okay if I sit here?" she asked, gesturing to the empty seat next to Ruth Ann. 

"Hm? Oh, sure, go right ahead," said Ruth Ann, waving her hand. 

The girl slid into the seat and set her Defense book on the desk. "I'm Lora Linar, by the way. What's your name? It's kind of embarrassing, but I wasn't paying attention at the Sorting." 

Ruth Ann clapped her hands with happiness. "Really? You mean I wasn't the only one who thought it was boring? Cool! I'm Ruth Ann Hunter," she added as an afterthought. 

Lora was about to reply when the professor who had made the silly speech the night before about "being friends" with the students, stood up at the front of the room and cleared her throat. "Hem, hem," began dumpy professor, "I am Professor Umbridge, and this class is Defense Against the Dark Arts. You all have your Defense textbooks, correct? Good. Would you all please take out your books and read the first chapter. There will be no need to talk." 

The class stared at Professor Umbridge. No one made a move to take out their books, except for Parnelle and the boy next to Nimuë. Nimuë hit him lightly on the arm, and his hands fell still. It was obvious that he was more afraid of Nimuë than of Professor Umbridge, and Ruth Ann was beginning to get the feeling that he was right to feel that way. There was just something about Nimuë... 

Professor Umbridge frowned at her near-motionless class. "Well?" Nimuë's hand shot up into the air. "Yes, Miss...?" 

"Chandler. Nimuë Chandler. Professor Umbridge, not to be rude or anything, but do you actually intend to have us read our textbooks during class time? That's really more like preparatory work, we should be doing it before class, on our own time." 

Umbridge's eyes narrowed. "I do not think that you are in any position to question my teaching methods, Miss Chandler. While the reading for your other classes may be done outside of the classroom, you will all be completing your Defense Against the Dark Arts reading in this room. If you feel the need to reread anything you did not understand, I suppose you may use your own time if you choose." 

Nimuë gave Umbridge a look of scorn at the implication that she might not understand everything that she read. "What about practical magic?" she pressed. "Will we be learning how to perform defense spells in class, or just reading the book?" 

Professor Umbridge's mouth settled into a firm line at Nimuë's question. "Do you expect to be attacked in this classroom?" 

"No, but–" 

"If you are not attacked, there is no reason for you to be performing any defensive magic. As you will not be..." She trailed off as she spotted Ruth Ann's hand, which the girl had raised tentatively. "Yes, Miss...?" 

"Hunter. Ruth Ann Hunter," Ruth Ann answered shyly. 

As soon as Ruth Ann spoke, a strange look appeared on Professor Umbridge's face, though it quickly disappeared as she schooled her expression. "Did you have a question?" Professor Umbridge asked sweetly. 

"If we were attacked in the class could we– 

Professor Umbridge gave Ruth Ann a patronizing smile. "You will not be attacked while in this classroom." 

"It was a hyper – no, that's not it – hyperbole, hypotenuse, hypothermia..." Ruth Ann searched for the word that she wanted. 

"Hypothetical?" Lora suggested quietly. 

"Yeah, that's it! A hypothetical question. If we were attacked by, say, aliens, could we–" 

"Attacked by what, Miss Hunter?" 

"Aliens. You know, little green men from outer space in flying saucers? Only they aren't really little green men, they're floating black balls about the size of a Bludger, but it's generally the same idea. If they attacked, could we use our wands to defend ourselves, or would we have to wait until class was over?" 

"Miss Hunter, while these... aliens... may be a problem where you come from, there is no chance that they could possibly invade the classrooms here at Hogwarts," Professor Umbridge said, her voice taking on a tone of false reassurance. 

"Shows what she knows," Ruth Ann muttered to herself as she withdrew her Defense book from her bag. "_I'm_ an extraterrestrial and _I've_ successfully invaded Hogwarts and no one's even realized it yet." Lora gave her a strange look, but wisely chose to instead open up her book to the first chapter and not say anything. With Ruth Ann, that was almost always the safer option. 

Still wondering about Ruth Ann's ranting on aliens, the rest of the class decided that it might be safer to admit defeat for now, and seek revenge on the teacher who dared to inhibit their learning another day. The Ravenclaw first years took out their books, and began reading Chapter One. Of course, since most of them had already read the first chapter, quite a few spent the class with their books open but their minds lost in thought. Nimuë and Ruth Ann's questions had given them all a lot to think about. 

– – –

And so we learn of Ruth Ann's cousin. And Ruth Ann's own other-worldly origins. As to whether or not Ruth Ann is an alien... I really don't know. She hasn't told me yet (though I doubt that she is. The Xorklings wouldn't like it very much at all). But look! I have a real title for this fic now! I am so very proud of myself. 

Sorry about the sell-out chapter ending, but it was getting to be too long, and I really needed to end this thing. Here I was determined to start writing shorter chapters, and then this one goes and ends up being almost as long as the previous ones... :( 

Next chapter: psychic powers and the lack-there-of, concerning names, Ruth Ann's One True Love. 


End file.
